Creating Gender Equity: Lessons from
Iceland
This week I have come across a piece
discussing gender equality in Iceland. The government here decided
that after the global market crash of 2008 that things needed to
change, and they choose a somewhat radical method to accomplish this.
They made a mandate that they must incorporate 'feminine values' into
the system and ensure that 40% of corporate boards were composed of
women. They felt that the “mainly male spheres of private equity,
wealth management, and corporate advice” had been a significant
reason why the system failed to begin with. Approaching gender parity
here, while the US is lagging behind with only 17% of women in
comparable positions.
To further this approach to creating
gender equality between men and women, they have also created
legislation that gives women and men a very significant level of
maternity and paternity leave upon child birth. From here, the
government criminalised the purchase of sex in 2009 and banned strip
clubs in 2010, which met with criticism from a lot of North Americans
as they claimed it 'restricts' women's choice of being objectified.
This came across as a completely absurd form of criticism as no human
being should want to be objectified. Currently, there is more
legislation in the works that would restrict or ban 'hardcore or
violent' pornography which is considered violent against women. This
form of pornography strictly uses women as a means for male sexual
gratification and dehumanizes them. Professor Gail Dines notes that
in these instances women are often depicted being choked, being
called demeaning names, and often forced into rough intercourse with
multiple men. Though some have cried foul saying that the Icelandic
government is infringing on freedom of speech, Dines points out one
distinguishing factor that shows otherwise. "Iceland
is going after corporate speech produced by a global industry,"
(meaning the porn industry, which is now a multi-billion dollar
industry). She believes that the porn industry controls the
discussion of sex. Since the target here is not individuals'
freedoms, "The question is: Do we want to have broader debates
and a broader discourse about sex, or do we want the pornographers to
control it?" she is quoted asking. This raises a good question,
and outside of the porn industry, I think many don't want to depict
sex and male-female sexual relations in this manner. Maybe it's
possible that the US can borrow a few pages from Iceland's approach
to gender parity and equality in their society and apply it here?
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